PAST

Unfunded Science launched in 2017 as an alarm, a smoke signal to alert the presence of something intruding on the institutions of science. That something, as the word "Unfunded" was meant to suggest, was the financial incentive steering scientists down a path where truth was no longer the ultimate goal, and in place of truth was money. When money dictates the terms of scientific inquiry, the results feedback into the financial system, and the pursuit of truth is downgraded in the hierarchy of value.

Unfunded Science was not alone in pronouncing these claims, and the trajectory of science was ultimately revealed to all in 2020. The corruption was made visible for all to see. A once thriving culture was so brazen in missing the mark that the institutions of science and the people who inhabit them lost their status among a large percentage of the populace. This is a fundamental breach of trust, a break that can never be repaired, and can only be replaced with great effort over a long time.

PRESENT

The science of the past is no more, and the science of the future is not yet here. This time we are living through is limbo, or purgatory. A time when we can witness the collapse of the old system, and pick up the pieces in trying to build the new one. Nobody knows what the new system will look like in detail, certainly not us. But the mission to proclaim truth amidst absurdity and lies can never be extinguished. It will go underground, into exile, filling cracks and inhabiting places where conditions are appropriate. It may not be outwardly visible, but it will never be absent. Everything starts as potential; unmanifest, uncreated, eternal. It is potential which pulls us towards something, and potential which transforms the world. There is so much potential right now.

FUTURE

The future tends to be uncertain, and Unfunded Science is no exception. But unfunded science, the concept, will endure. We didn't invent it, it existed long before we came along. And it will continue long after we are gone. Our future belongs to the unborn generations to come, and only they can make sense of how our potential has impacted the landscape. Some day, I think a new paradigm of science will manifest. Eventually, I imagine that pursuing truth will be acceptable. One day, I believe freedom of inquiry will be celebrated. But that day is not today.